DOVER, Del.—Sprint Cup teams are looking forward to having four additional test sessions next season and they might have more things to test than they initially thought.

Teams are awaiting 2013 rules and several team officials said over the weekend they anticipate NASCAR might give them a little more leeway in some areas of the car, while also restricting the ability to skew the rear of the cars.

NASCAR has prohibited teams from testing at NASCAR-sanctioned tracks the past four years but will allow them to test at four sanctioned tracks beginning next season. That’s in addition to the traditional preseason test at Daytona.

Not only will testing allow them to work now at the tracks that they race on, they also might need to work a little more on qualifying. Teams also are anticipating that NASCAR will get rid of the top-35 rule and go back to the previous system of the top 36 (or 37 or 38) cars in qualifying making the race, with the remainder of the field set by provisionals based primarily on owner points.

The top-35 rule guarantees the top 35 teams in owner points starting spots in each race. The rest of the field must make the race on speed. Under the new format, all teams would have to qualify on speed or have enough owner points to be eligible for a provisional starting spot.

NASCAR could announce that change and other new rules during a test at Talladega Superspeedway Wednesday for the 2013 Cup car.

Kyle Busch said his Joe Gibbs Racing team already is experimenting with some ideas for next year.

Busch said teams know the cars are going to be lighter by 100-160 pounds. He also said there will be aero changes that he said he would be the “test dummy” for at a tire test at Texas Motor Speedway in two weeks.

Busch said teams can’t do much until they know the exact parameters.

“The biggest thing is going to be what their decisions are going to be in rear camber rules, rear toe rules and track bar rules and truck arm rules and all that stuff,” Busch said. “I think all that is not yet for sure.”

NASCAR won’t make those decisions until after upcoming tests at Talladega, Kansas and Charlotte and tire tests at Texas and Phoenix.

“We’ve set out a sheet (to the teams) in which to test by and then we’ll evaluate where we are with that and see if we have to adjust any of that for another test,” NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton said.

“When we get home and process the data, we’ll see if we can narrow down or lock down what the rules are going to be.”

Testing to help rookies Stenhouse, Patrick

The new testing rules likely will help rookies such as Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Danica Patrick next year, as well as struggling teams such as Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.

NASCAR has not determined how many cars a team can take to each test, but it likely will be at least two.

“That’s going to be huge,” said Stenhouse, the 2011 Nationwide Series champion who will drive Roush Fenway Racing’s No. 17 Cup car next season. “I’ve already thought about testing. The Nationwide cars drive so great compared to the Cup cars with so much horsepower and to get extra tests next year will definitely be a benefit for us.

“Everybody else will be able to get faster too, but I think it’ll help me kind of speed up and catch up with the learning curve of what we’ve got to do.”

Most of the elite teams likely will hold off on testing at the start of the season, instead hoping to get information from affiliates. If the past is any indication, most teams will save their tests for Chase for the Sprint Cup tracks.

The tests also will be important for Penske Racing, which is making the switch from Dodge to Ford.

“Ricky Stenhouse, that’s the guy it’s going to help the most,” Keselowski said. “We need to have testing. We need to continue to develop and break the rut we’re in as a sport as far as new drivers and new people not being able to break in.”

Phoenix Racing plans to continue

With Kurt Busch leaving Phoenix Racing for Furniture Row Racing after the race next week at Talladega, that leaves Phoenix Racing looking for a driver for its No. 51 car for the rest of the season and for 2013.

“We knew this was coming down, we knew Kurt was going to do something different,” Phoenix Racing general manager Steve Barkdoll said. “What it’s done is allow people to say, ‘Hey let’s give Phoenix a call and see what they’ve got going on.’

“That makes us feel good. We were really glad to have (Busch). We wish we had the funding to keep him. But when he made the announcement that he was leaving, it’s opened up the phone lines.”

Barkdoll said the team hopes to run a full season again in 2013.

Among the drivers that could get a look in the Phoenix Racing car are Regan Smith, whom Busch is replacing at Furniture Row, and recently reinstated driver AJ Allmendinger, who failed a NASCAR drug test in June for what he said was Adderall.

Martin strong at Dover, now off again

Mark Martin finished third at Dover and will celebrate that finish by … taking another week off.

Martin’s 25-race schedule only included one restrictor-plate race — the Daytona 500. Michael Waltrip had the other three and will race this weekend at Talladega.

Martin will be back in the car the following two weeks at Charlotte and Kansas, and then take another week off as Brian Vickers drives the car at Martinsville.

“I don’t know with all the show that was going on, if everybody really noticed or not, but we had a rocket-ship, super-fast car,” Martin said after the Dover race.

“Start of the race, green flag, we were passing cars left and right. It was awesome.”